College football winners and losers: Indiana looks like the real deal

Another weekend of college football is in full swing. This file will update as more results roll in, but here are some of the most notable winners and losers so far. Return to menu There have been several opportunities for the Hoosiers to reveal they’re not actually for real, that their nice 3-0 or 4-0 start is going to result in a fade to 7-5 or 6-6. It hasn’t happened. And it sure doesn’t look like it will. You name it, the Hoosiers (7-0, 4-0 Big Ten) did it. They controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, averaging 6.5 yards a carry while yielding 2.4 yards a rush to the Cornhuskers. They forced five turnovers. They largely avoided third downs and converted more than half of the ones they had to deal with. More than half of the regular season is complete, and no one has played Indiana any closer than two touchdowns (and that was Maryland, which couldn’t keep it any tighter despite a plus-four turnover margin). The Hoosiers get Washington next, followed by Michigan State on the road. Win both, and Curt Cignetti’s first Indiana team will welcome Michigan to Bloomington with a 9-0 record. It sounds like a fever dream, but the Hoosiers are very, very real. Return to menu A week after getting smacked by Texas — hardly good for morale and bragging rights, but not altogether surprising — the Sooners were arguably worse Saturday in a 35-9 loss at home to South Carolina. How much worse? Well, Oklahoma committed three turnovers in its first nine snaps. Two were returned for touchdowns. The Gamecocks sported a 21-0 lead just 5:20 into the game. It’s been a rough go for the Sooners (4-3, 1-3 SEC) in their first season in their new league. Oklahoma has mustered just a combined 27 points in its losses to Tennessee, Texas and South Carolina. It can’t be lost on anyone that former Sooners quarterback Dillon Gabriel, Oklahoma’s starter the past two seasons, is having no problems piloting a strong offense at Oregon. Also glaring: The Sooners still have to play at Mississippi, at Missouri, home vs. Alabama and at LSU. They’ll need to find a victory in there somewhere (plus a victory Nov. 2 date over Football Championship Subdivision school Maine) simply to reach the postseason. Return to menu The Hurricanes might be the best team in the ACC, but they seem determined to secure that honor by modest margins. First there was an escape against Virginia Tech on a Friday night last month, aided by a controversial replay reversal that denied the Hokies a winning touchdown. And Miami also managed to wipe out a 25-point deficit in a rollicking 39-38 comeback victory at California two weeks ago. That made Saturday’s 52-45 triumph at Louisville look like an almost paint-by-numbers, defense-optional affair. Which it was. The Hurricanes (7-0, 3-0 ACC) never trailed in a game that had 12 different players score touchdowns. They also never led by more than 10 at any point. It wasn’t the stereotypical game of runs so much as it was a game of defenses hopelessly running after a superb collection of skill position players. Two points worth taking away from this. One, Miami quarterback Cam Ward didn’t hurt his Heisman chances, throwing for 319 yards and four touchdowns. Two, the Hurricanes better not live dangerously next week. Not with 1-6 Florida State coming to town. Return to menu Winning at Missouri on Saturday wouldn’t have saved the Tigers’ spiraling season, but it would have provided at least a little affirmation for a team that has at least stayed in several games with its defense. And with a two-touchdown lead early in the third quarter, it seemed Auburn might earn its first SEC victory of the season. Missouri, after all, wasn’t moving the ball well and had seen quarterback Brady Cook leave with an injury. Then Missouri managed a field goal. Then Cook returned to lead a touchdown drive to trim the deficit to three. And arguably with his team’s playoff hopes at stake, Cook led a 17-play, 95-yard drive in the final five minutes to send Missouri to a 21-17 victory. The final 46 seconds were anticlimactic. Auburn (2-5, 0-4) turned it over on downs in four plays, and Hugh Freeze’s team finished with 21 points or fewer for the fifth time in its past six games. Return to menu The Ducks were never going to prove as much in Friday’s trip to Purdue as they did against Ohio State six nights earlier. The Buckeyes remain a Big Ten contender despite a 32-31 loss in Eugene. The Boilermakers haven’t defeated a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent all season (though they were coming off a plucky showing at Illinois). The short turnaround, the emotional high of beating Ohio State less than a week earlier, the winless-in-the-Big Ten opponent … it was a formula that easily could have led to a less-than-inspiring showing for Oregon. Instead, the Ducks opened the game with a long touchdown drive. And then another. And then another. Twenty minutes in, and the game was basically over. Oregon (7-0, 4-0) went on to win 35-0. Friday won’t go down as Oregon’s most memorable performance or its most complete. But it was a display of maturity, and the Ducks warrant plenty of credit for it. Return to menu By the time the Seminoles exited Labor Day, their playoff hopes were slim. As September progressed, their chances of finishing in the top half of the ACC became dim. Now, things are just grim. Florida State’s train wreck of a season continued Friday with a 23-16 loss to Duke, the Seminoles’ first setback against the Blue Devils in 23 all-time meetings. Things were so bleak that by the middle of the second quarter, it felt like Duke Coach Manny Diaz was content to play things uber-conservatively even with a 14-3 lead. And considering the Seminoles had turnovers on three snaps in a row, it was hard to blame him. Indeed, Duke (6-1, 2-1 ACC) collected a mere 180 total yards, but it hardly mattered because Florida State (1-6, 1-5) scored its only touchdown on a kickoff return. The ACC has been around for more than 70 years. Before this season, the only teams to go undefeated in the league one year and then lose at least five conference games the next were 1957-58 North Carolina State (5-0-1 to 2-5), 1972-73 North Carolina (6-0 to 1-5) and 1991-92 Clemson (6-0-1 to 3-5). No one’s gone from unbeaten to six ACC losses in consecutive years, something Florida State must defeat Miami and North Carolina in the next two weeks to avoid achieving. Return to menu In fine Virginia Tech fashion, Tuten saved a record-breaking outing for a Thursday night, breaking tackles and outrunning the Boston College defense for a school-record 266 yards as the Hokies doubled up the Eagles, 42-21. Tuten needed only 18 carries to best Darren Evans’s record of 253 yards — set on a Thursday night in Blacksburg against Maryland in 2008 — and scored four total touchdowns, including one on a 20-yard reception just before halftime. Tuten is up to 871 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns for Virginia Tech (4-3, 2-1 ACC). The Hokies record for rushing yards in a season — David Wilson’s 1,709 in 2011 — might be in play. Lee Suggs’s 27 rushing touchdowns in 2000? That’s more of a reach. Nonetheless, it’s abundantly clear Tuten could be on his way to one of the best seasons a Virginia Tech running back has ever had. And with just the one league loss to this point (a controversial setback at Miami), the Hokies remain in the ACC title chase thanks in part to its nifty senior back.